Bill Maher: anti-Israel boycott movement ‘A bulls— purity test’

Bill Maher: anti-Israel boycott movement ‘A bulls— purity test’

Bill Maher criticized the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel on his show Friday night, following Israel’s ban on permitting Democratic representatives Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar from visiting the country.

Following pressure from President Donald Trump, Israel on Thursday banned reps. Omar and Tlaib, both of whom are vocal supporters of the BDS movement, from visiting the country. Tlaib asked Israel to allow her to visit her 90-year-old grandmother living in the West Bank, promising to “respect any restrictions and will not promote any boycotts against Israel.” But when Israel accepted her offer, she rejected it.

The BDS campaign seeks to further isolate Israel from the international community under the charge that Israel’s treatment of Palestinians is akin to apartheid. It’s supported by a minority of Democratic lawmakers — the House of Representatives in July passed a measure to condemn it by a vote of 398 to 117. But Trump has sought to make it a wedge issue as part of his political strategy to erode bipartisan support for Israel, and to make Tlaib, Omar, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and Ayana Pressley — four Democratic representatives on the left — the face of the Democratic party.

“It’s predicated on this notion, I think — it’s very shallow thinking — that the Jews in Israel, mostly white, and the Palestinians are browner, so they must be innocent and correct, and the Jews must be wrong,” he said. “As if the occupation came right out of the blue, that this completely peaceful people found themselves occupied.”

The Israeli occupation of Palestine and conflict between Jewish and Arab populations dates back to as early as the 1920s when large groups of Jews migrated to the area in reaction to worldwide anti-Semitism.